I am an evil giraffe. Who no longer blogs about politics.

Ed Morrissey has the details. On Gov. Rick Snyder’s actual prospects I’m… shrugging. He’s a successful two-term governor in a swing state who has a solid conservative win (right-to-work) under his belt. But we’ve got a lot of those right now, if you know what I mean?

And that’s the real story, isn’t it? In 2012 that description would have – did – propel a candidate instantly to the top of the list. In 2016 it’s – well, Snyder’s record is something to be proud of, but it’s nothing too special. I really, really enjoy having a candidate pool this deep. It gives us a margin for error.

Moe Lane

PS: Kind of significant that there’s no shortage of successful Republican politicians deciding that the political situation is worth a little speculative activity. We had a certain lack of that in 2012, alas.

(H/T: @presjpolk) Background: back during the largely unlamented Granholm administration, Michigan allowed SEIU to ‘organize’ caregivers who were only taking care of adult disabled friends and family members. And by ‘organize caregivers’ I mean, of course, ‘raid government disability checks for phony union dues.’ It was a great scam, frankly: the money got deducted right from the Medicare or Medicaid check, the ‘members’ affected never got hit up for money directly, and the amounts per paycheck were small enough (this article gives $30/month as one example: it may be, in fact, the high-end) that people didn’t squawk too loudly. Smart parasites know not to hurt the host too badly.

But then 2011 Rick Snyder became governor, and he promptly started deworming Michigan. The technique was and is simple (Scott Walker used the same trick in Wisconsin): Snyder simply stopped making the process mandatory, and then waited to see what happened. And what happened? (more…)

The Monroe News has reported that the legislation (part of House Bill 4054) just (4:45 PM) passed 58-52 in the state house, and will now go to the State Senate (I’m being told that the Senate will vote on this legislation within five business days). Governor Rick Snyder (R) has already indicated that he will sign the legislation if it gets to his desk; given that the Michigan Senate has a two-to-one Republican majority, this is likely to occur. Right-to-work opponents have already showed their disapproval of the measure, to the point where the cops had to use pepper spray to get control of the Michigan State Capitol. All in all, today’s demonstration is unlikely to be the only response by Big Labor to Michigan’s union reform bill/law, in the same way that water is somewhat wet and the sun’s surface can get a trifle warm sometimes.

More as it happens.

UPDATE: Annnnnd Fox News reports that they’ve just passed a similar bill in the Senate. Five-day delay before the final version gets passed; I assume that the first labor-induced (I am so dreadfully sorry for that) rioting has been tentatively penciled in for Monday morning.

The alternate title for this is “Elections have consequences, Michigan edition.”

The short version (H/T: Instapundit) is that the Lawrence Public School district of Michigan got caught abusing their emergency broadcast system to explicitly notify people of an ongoing campaign to recall new Governor Rick Snyder, to the point where they gave directions and times for people who wanted to sign a petition. When this was noticed, Lawrence Public School District Superintendent John Overly fell all over himself admitting the mistake – although apparently this was not enough of a mistake to actually formally bring before the school board. And then there’s this exchange:

Capitol Confidential asked Overley if that meant he had known ahead of time that something concerning the recall was going to be sent out.

Ignore everything written in this Washington Post divide-and-conquer attempt targeting new Michigan governor Rick Snyder: there is no adversarial relationship between the governor and his Republican colleagues. In fact, it would not surprise me in the slightest if Rick Snyder makes a point of ending each day by thanking God for Chris Christie, John Kasich, and – most assuredly – Scott Walker. If they didn’t exist, Snyder would be the target of a lot more media attention right now.

And it’d be very hostile media attention, mostly because of the budget proposal that Governor Snyder revealed last week. It is a fascinating proposal; which is to say, it is an exercise in raw political courage even by the currently-high standards of state Republican organizations. Elimination of state Earned Income Credits. Lifetime cap on welfare benefits. The current corporate tax break system largely ripped out and replaced with a flat tax. Cuts to education and police services, not to mention local municipalities. And – this is the one that is going to cause Snyder problems with the GOP – the imposition of state taxes on public and private employee pensions. This last one is actually pretty standard, but it is still a new tax… on senior citizens.

Oh, and $180,000,000 in concessions from unions. Governor Snyder will be happy to let them work out how they can come up with the money for that. And just as long as it’s understood that this is independent of public sector unions paying for more of their healthcare plans. (more…)